When you first see Donna in the MudGirls Studio, she’s usually working the clay. Strong, soft hands kneading the mud. Preparing it for transformation. Molding and shaping the clay, Donna later says, “eases my mind.”

Before MudGirls Studios, these moments of ease, if they happened at all, were few and far between.  She tells stories of her years living street to street, shelter to shelter, city to city, in a type of code; just skirting the edges of the moments of serious peril, trauma, and the exhaustion of constant vulnerability she survived. Each story is close to her heart and, Donna remembers, was a stop “on my journey.” 

She folds her hands in her lap and shares that nearly 20 years ago, she was a “total mess” when her parents threw her and her children out. Back then, she felt she could handle the streets better on her own and, because it was better for them, Donna relinquished her two children to their father and began what would become 13 years of homelessness. 

“You feel disgraceful and not wanted,” she admits as she looks at her hands, still lightly coated with the sooty silver of dry clay.  

For a time, she wandered through cities, looking for a home. “Do they still do jazz nights on the water?” she asks about Baltimore, a city whose streets she slept on during her journey. Her eyes sparkle as she describes planting herself on the grass just on the edges of one of the outdoor venues of the Inner Harbor, listening to the music into the early hours of the morning. From Baltimore to DC and eventually to Atlantic City. When she first arrived in Atlantic City, she remembers, “Atlantic City didn’t want me. They told me to go back where I came from.” 

But Atlantic City would keep her - or she would keep it. Donna notes that God told her to go to Atlantic City. 

Being homeless in Atlantic City wasn’t forgiving; she lost a lot and struggled quite a bit. Except when she was at Adelaide’s Place, a day shelter for homeless women. Donna spent her days there and it was there that Donna and Dorrie Papademetriou met. Dorrie brought the clay and, soon, the vision of MudGirls Studios.

Donna enjoyed the ‘clay days’ at Adelaide’s Place, but confesses she didn’t know what to expect out of the idea of MudGirls Studios. “All I knew was I was gonna be creative.”

One of the founding MudGirls, Donna believes she’d still be on the streets if it were not because of what those ‘mud days’ grew into. It was like “here, I go again...learning about myself!,” she says. 

Five years, thousands of pounds of clay later, Donna sees the Studio as not only a job, but a reminder of her value. She knows she is integral to the process, the team, and all the MudGirls have accomplished.

In the studio now, beaming and proud, she points out the breathtaking vases and platters she’s helped make. Each is perfectly organic. Leaves, waves, circles stud the pieces in harmonious curves and patterns.  Big, bold statement pieces - serving bowls, platters, and vases - these are Donna’s favorites to create. If you purchase or receive one of these, you may find they radiate an added abundance of joy and presence. That feeling comes from Donna and the deep peace and ease she feels as she continues along on this part of her journey.